This moment quantity in "The american citizens" trilogy bargains with the the most important interval of yank background from the Revolution to the Civil struggle. the following we meet the folks who formed, and have been formed through, the yank experience—the flexible New Englanders, the Transients and the Boosters. Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize.

Extra resources for A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789

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Available evidence, however, suggests that the majority of the ranking officers were persons of at least modest wealth and distinction, when compared to their neighbors. As befitted the deferential character of late colonial society, the rank and file accepted the leadership of their socioeconomic “betters” in the officer‐ grade ranks. Favoritism toward the well‐to‐do did not change one basic point, however. Whether or not the militia system was a source of incipient democracy, the lack of solid training and combat experience on the part of popularly elected officers and rank‐and‐file freemen was one reason for the militia’s uneven combat record.

The time had come for a republican war with the avowed purpose of preserving liberty in a darkened world. The most pressing question was whether American patriots could demonstrate enough virtue to sustain the cause of liberty and succeed in the momentous martial challenge now confronting them. On their part, the British were equally convinced a conspiracy was afoot in the colonies. Until the bitter experience of war proved otherwise, Lord North’s ministry sincerely believed that the majority of Americans were loyal to the King, and that all the trouble stemmed from a minority of republican fanatics who 26 Lexington, Concord, and the Myths of the War, 1763–1775 had deluded or cowed their neighbors.

What is so striking is that the pattern of service obligation was coming to resemble that of eighteenth‐century England. In both societies the horror of open‐field combat had been set aside as an appropriate calling for the “poorer sort” of persons (with upper‐class leadership), while the middle classes filled militia ranks. The middle‐class character of the militia has led some historians to view the institution as another seedbed of future democratic flowerings. Since militiamen were invariably persons of some substance, property holding must have been widespread.